Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked major anger after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by stripping their clothing.
Several examples have been seen where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to produce pictures and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
